Here's one reason Ben Carson is still fighting for the GOP nomination

Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben
Carson has yet to finish in the top three in any of the first
four voting states during the 2016 election season.

The other remaining candidates have all recorded at least one
top-three finish, with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump
all consistently finishing at the top of the pack, with the
exception of Rubio in New Hampshire.

Carson isn't faring well in upcoming states either.

In the swath of "Super Tuesday" states that vote next Tuesday,
and which have polls listed on RealClearPolitics, Carson is among
the top three candidates in just one:
Alaska.

So why has Carson remained in the race? A former Carson insider
told Business Insider it's because he can afford to
be.

The source said he believed the "dirty trick" from the Cruz
campaign on the day of the Iowa caucuses — during which Cruz's
campaign suggested to voters that Carson was dropping out of the
race — helped Carson's campaign raise money.

"Don't think it will mean much, but he can keep the campaign
going for a while," the source said.

After the last
FEC reporting period, which spanned January 1 to January 31,
Carson's campaign had more than $4.1 million in cash on hand.
Compare that to Rubio, considered a far stronger candidate, who
had roughly $5 million on hand. And that reporting period came
before the Cruz incident in Iowa.

Earlier this month, just after the Iowa caucuses, Barry
Bennett, Carson's former campaign manager and current volunteer
adviser for the Trump campaign, said that unless Carson could
raise more money quick, he'd have to bow out before Super
Tuesday.

"Short of a big uptick in fundraising, it's going to be very
tough for him," he told Business Insider.

Carson's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

At the time, Bennett said Carson should use his large following
to "do some good in the world," adding: "It's probably not going
to be inside the White House."

This week, after another poor showing — this time in Tuesday's
Nevada caucuses — many of the replies to Carson's tweets on
Wednesday seemingly begged the candidate to drop out:

@RealBenCarson Dr. Carson, you're a great man. You have our admiration. We the people are asking that you please bow out gracefully for USA